The tart yogurt craze

With Spring here and warm weather around the corner there’s no better time to visit and compare the ever expanding group of tart yogurt shops in DC. The craze hit DC last year, practically taking over the city last summer with competing shops in Dupont like Tangy Sweet and Mr. Yogato. Since then? It’s only grown with five new shops open since September to make it eight (and counting) inside DC alone. Read Meat’s going to review each (and the countless more that will likely open in the following year), starting with Tangy Sweet today. But first, the background.

When most people think of frozen yogurt something like TCBY comes to mind. That traditional frozen yogurt is really a lighter form of ice cream, healthier than the alternative but not usually “yogurt” at all. But tart frozen yogurt? That’s a completely different animal - it’s real yogurt, both in taste and composition. It’s ingredients are simple (at least at Tangy Sweet): live and active culture base, water, non-fat milk, sugar and the juice of whatever flavor’s being made. They’re mixed together and put into a soft-serve dispenser, and voila, you have a cold refreshing tangy yogurt-tasting treat.

So how did it get so popular? In part, health. Not only is tart yogurt considerably healthier than ice cream, but some claim it’s actually good for you. Their assertion, like Dannon’s Activia, is based on the live and active cultures in the yogurt, which are supposed to help with digestion and immune system issues. Though I think the jury’s still out on this one. Either way, it’s much healthier than the alternatives. That combined with a rather addicting and refreshing taste sparked the obsession and off it went. 

In America, tart yogurt first gained popularity in Southern California, spawning a flood of yogurt shops including the most famous, Pink Berry, which recently was the subject of an AmEx commercial (below). Fast forward a few years and (after hitting New York) tart frozen yogurt arrived in DC, setting off the obsession that began last summer. And here we are today with two shops in Georgetown (Sweet Green, Iceberry), two in Adams Morgan (Caliyogurt, O-Yeah), two in Dupont (Tangy Sweet, Mr. Yogato), one in Cleveland Park (Yogiberry) and one in Chinatown (Tangy Sweet’s second location).

Later today, the Tangy Sweet review.